Rather than simply being a standalone puzzle-action game, it's actually one part of beActive's futuristic multiplatform Collider World project.

Alongside the Collider Quest game, beActive plans to immerse gamers in the Collider World 'universe' via a web series, comic books (also available as apps), a story prequel on Wattpad, and even a film (which is due for release this autumn).

We spoke to Nuno Bernardo, beActive's CEO, to find out which films, TV shows, and games acted as inspiration for Collider Quest.

Test of time

"We were inspired by the work of J.J. Abrams and the sci-fi post-apocalyptic movies like the Terminator series, where the world collapses because of the machines," Bernardo says. "The way we pitch Collider Quest is Lost-meets-Terminator."

"We were in love with the concept of putting average anonymous people in a challenging environment. In the same way that the producers of Lost 'dropped' a group of people on a desert island, we placed six random people in a grim and hostile future and gave them one primary objective: save mankind."

Set in a post-apocalyptic 2018, Collider Quest invites you to assume the role of one of the characters in the story and execute the mission that the six characters within the story will have to undertake in the upcoming film.

As you progress through the game and begin to explore the different environments, your gaming chops will be challenged in a variety of ways.

"The inspiration for the Collider Quest mini-games themselves were puzzle titles such as Pipe Mania, Luxor, Zen Bound, Compression, and hidden objects games like the Mystery Case Files series," Bernardo reveals.

Balancing act

In order to strike a balance between the story and puzzle elements of the game, beActive has encouraged audience interaction so that players genuinely feel part of the journey.

"Although each element of Collider Quest works as a standalone piece, to better understand the storyworld, players are encouraged to watch, read, and play each different element in order to connect to the story and characters on a deeper level and understand the world we've created," Bernardo says.

A lot of thought has clearly gone into keeping Collider Quest's gameplay interesting, and into ensuring that the puzzles don't get repetitive.

"The level of difficulty increases with each new level - the same way the challenges to the characters in a movie become bigger and bigger," Bernardo says.

"After you reach the end of the story, we expect you will want to go back through the levels and discover some extra elements that you may have missed to achieve higher scores."

"I think the gameplay is really good, as the player can evolve throughout the complex story," Bernardo says. "The first time I played level 12, I said, 'Wow', as the gameplay and graphics were amazing. That level could be a game on its own."

Unfinished symphony?

But, were there any features or gameplay elements that the beActive team didn't have time to include in version 1.0 of Collider Quest which could potentially make the game even more "amazing"?

"Two things that we couldn't incorporate into this first release were deeper social media integration and multiplayer features," Bernardo admits.

"Six characters undertake the mission to save mankind in the film, so we would like to replicate that in the game via some six-way real-time co-op action. But, of course, we're also keen to read user reviews and suggestions on how to improve the game on the App Store, and may incorporate some of these customer ideas in upcoming software updates."

Speaking of upcoming software, Bernardo also told us that the game will be making its way onto other formats.

"We are already working on a mini-game to be distributed for free as a Facebook game. We will also release a new Collider World-inspired game in the autumn based on the story of Luke, one of the characters in the game, for both iOS and Android."

Collider Quest is available to download now on the App Store [iTunes link] and Android [Google Play link], with the first three puzzles free to play.